


shall we dance

by Cronomon



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-22 01:05:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9575048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cronomon/pseuds/Cronomon
Summary: Kanan is holding her hand out, waiting, with the same patient look she wore in Dia’s room when they were six years old, fumbling around and falling every other minute.“Wanna try?” she asks.





	

The first time Dia saw a ballroom was on the screen of her television set.

It was one of those big clunky ones, the set, like all of them were, back then. Static crackled once in a while, warping the sound, ripping the pictures apart for a few seconds at a time, but that day, the day the ballroom appeared, everything was crystal clear.

Reds and oranges and yellow hues, sweeping gowns and lavish decor. A floor that seemed bigger than the entire Kurosawa estate, and the chandelier — the _chandelier_ — gleaming and glittering, like a second sun.

Everyone, their feet and their bodies, moved to the tempo of a tune she’d never heard before, hadn’t even considered to be possible. It was Western, she later learned, a waltz, and the sound in her ears and the word on her tongue felt so new, so intriguing, so… different.

It stirred something inside of her. She reached for the remote to rewind to the beginning.

.

Dia watched that scene endlessly over the next couple of days, tapping time on her fingers, humming melodies under her breath even when she was just making them up, and when she thought she finally got it, she brought Kanan over, and sat her down, and made her watch.

It was obvious from the first few seconds that Kanan wasn’t nearly as entranced as she’d been. She looked more confused than anything, face scrunched up as she peered at the flouncy dresses and pressed suits and twirling figures.

Dia’s ears burned, and she felt ashamed at herself for getting so carried away, and she was just about to scramble for the remote, apology ready on her lips, when Kanan turned to her with bright eyes and said,

“Do you wanna try?”

She didn’t even wait for an answer. She was already standing, hand outstretched, with a smile like the stars. 

.

They practiced in her room, hands clutched and on each other’s arms, Dia singing a makeshift song as they stumbled over their own feet and tried not to step on one another. It was clumsy, and messy, and completely undignified, nothing like what was on t.v at all.

It would’ve been frustrating, but Kanan looked so patient, so relaxed even as she made a misstep or tripped over herself. She looked like she was having fun. Dia liked that.

She spun under the guidance of Kanan’s arm, beneath the flickering of her lights, and for a moment, it seemed like a real dance, in a real ballroom, with a real partner.

.

Eventually, waltzes and ballrooms turned into pop songs and stadiums.

Sometimes she and Ruby sang together, heartfelt covers of old favorites. Sometimes she’d be with Kanan and Mari, trailing after them and their high-speed charge towards fame as school idols.

But now, finally, she stands on equal level with everyone, and the one-two beat is just a faded pattern in the back of her head.

.

Until one day, when the school roof is basked in sunset, and the floor stretches out as wide as her memory, and Dia finds herself humming again, cadences worn from disuse but never quite forgotten, much to her quiet surprise.

.

Chika is the first to act, pulling Riko forward with a grin almost like the chandelier on the screen years ago. She wraps an arm around Riko’s waist and steps forward and back in the most offensive waltz Dia has ever seen. She’s laughing, though, and so is Riko, and eventually the others move out as well, joining them in this amateurish romp.

Yoshiko is unexpectedly graceful as she leads Hanamaru in gentle circles around the roof, and Ruby yelps as Yō dips her in the most exaggerated manner possible.

Kanan and Mari are paired up, too, because of course they are, and they share secret giggles as they all but float across the floor, steps as light and airy as the clouds above them.

Dia leans back, and she sings the song of years ago, and when she closes her eyes she can still see the technicolor ballroom, and Kanan’s starlight smile. 

.

“Dia.”

It’s a little like a dream, then, when she opens her eyes and sees it there again, unchanged by the years somehow, and only for her, just like back then.

Mari is off courting Yoshiko, who looks miffed at the interruption, while Hanamaru looks on in amusement.

Kanan is holding her hand out, waiting, with the same patient look she wore in Dia’s room when they were six years old, fumbling around and falling every other minute.

“Wanna try?” she asks.

Her smile looks more sheepish all of a sudden, or maybe it’s just Dia’s imagination.

Either way, it doesn’t stop the knots tying in her stomach, or the warmth spreading in her chest.

It doesn’t stop her from taking Kanan’s hand, either, and she follows her lead, to the sound of her own singing, to the tempo of their memories.

It’s an easy thing, moving in sync with her, almost instinctive, and when she twirls under Kanan’s arm, she finds herself hoping that, perhaps this time, this reality will last.

**Author's Note:**

> i listened to g senjou no cinderella too much. also childhood friends kanadia gets to me


End file.
